Zero to 10.1

Done.

Let's change that to 4 PBs, 3 days

Last night I headed to the gym again, I was attempting to do a 3km under 16:30. However, it was pretty hard and I stopped at 2km. I did get my PB for 2km though! 10:54!

I decided that I should run another 1km to make up for the fact I didn't do the 3km, and managed to get a PB for 1km also. 4:54!!!

Awesome!

Now just gotta do that 3km. I wonder if this week I can make all of my runs PBs...

No run tonight, BEN FOLDS tonight! The 12th time seeing him live. Could be more, but can only think of 11 times off the top of my head: 1997 Recovery, 1998 Palais concert, 1998 Recovery, 1999 Palais concerts x 2, 2001 Prince of Wales concert, 2002 Palais concert, 2002 Live at the Chapel, 2003 The Bens concert, 2006 Tivoli concert, 2009 Opera House concert.

Two PBs, Two days

The Mothers Day Classic 10km was on Sunday. I didn't reach my goals, I ran it in 1:02:48, and all of my colleagues beat me. My tester by only 3 seconds! Gah! If it wasn't for me he would've probably done it much slower (he was carrying an injury).

I can blame maybe a minute on an undone shoelace in the first 100m, and a runner jam on the bridge just after the 1km point (which forced everyone to walk for a little while). But that's still nearly 2 minutes that were due to my own fault. I can also blame my pace setting on miCoach. It was telling me I was running at an okay pace for 6:15 min kms. Guess what my average pace for the run ended up being? 6:17. Fuck! Next time I'll know to make sure I set the pace to exactly what I want to be running.

Anyway, the 62:48 for 10km is still a PB. Previously it was 64+. So, that's something.

Last night I decided to go for another run, what I'd like to call a 'recovery run' from the 10km. I managed to get a 4km PB for that run, 23:25, with my previous best 4km being 26:00, which was a MAP interval run.

Tonight, I might try to break another PB. At this stage I haven't decided what distance yet. I have adjusted my short distance goals to try to get faster. They are:

2km < 11
3km < 16:30
4km < 22
5km < 27:30
That's all at 5:30 min pace.

I think I can totally do the 2km. I might try for the 3km tonight.

10km Tunes

Tomorrow morning I'm running the 10km Mothers Day Classic in Canberra. Competing against some of my work colleagues, I'm pretty keen to smash my 10km PB by a lot.

The last time I ran a 10km outside, was the Sri Chinmoy track, which is a pretty horrific course in terms of hills. I believe I was saying words I don't often say after I ran that one. The time was over 64 minutes with the second 5km being 31 minutes. Not bad considering the hills.

This time, I want to get well and truly under the hour mark. Super ideally I want to get around 55 minutes, but that might be a big ask. Realistically I'm thinking 58 minutes.

I need all the help I can get to reach this goal, so in the past few weeks I've spent quite a bit of time working out a running playlist for the 10km. Normally I run with the same running playlist on shuffle, but not this time. This time each song has a purpose.

Here is the playlist lined up for tomorrow:

Grinspoon - Just Ace

This song was a late addition, it played on the way home from the gym today and I decided it was a good one. Nice and short, fast start to the run.

Pink - Raise Your Glass

I quite like this song to get me started for a run. Not too fast so I'll go too hard to fast, but enough to get me going.

Lady Gaga - Telephone

Had to put a Lady Gaga in, this is my favourite. Not fast enough to be at the end.

The Potbellez - Don't Hold Back (Club Mix)

Nice dancey song to start pushing myself a bit harder.

Sia - Bring Night

"Chase your shadow til the sun goes down"

Rage Against the Machine - No Shelter

First of the RATM songs in the list. Good song to push me a bit faster.

Black Eyed Peas - Pump It

This is one of my old running songs from 2006. One of my all time faves.

Blondie - One Way or Another

I really enjoy running to this song, it came up in one of my recent runs and it was great. Put it at the point where I should be very close to reaching half way.

Rage Against the Machine - Renegades of Funk

Power song to get me past half way. Better be well and truly into the second 5km by the time this song finishes.

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

To get me going in the second 5km I chose the song that got me so excited in the half marathon that I started singing.

Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade

This is the official start of the power songs. From this point on I should be upping my speed a little.

Kula Shaker - Hush

One of my favourite sprint songs. Nice and quick, in beat and length.

Puff Daddy - Come With Me

I originally had this as my last song of the run, if I don't make 55 minutes. I decided to bring it forward because it's a great beat that gets me going faster. This is the very song that I finished my very first 10km with, back in 2006. Once this song finishes, I should have less than 10 minutes to go.

Muse - Uprising

Great song to get me going. Should easily bring me to my last km.

Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name

My ultimate power song at the moment. I should bring it home in the middle of this song.

If I finish within 58.6 minutes, then that's all I need. But just in case..

Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench

Last push over the line.

Other songs that come if I have a really bad run and go over an hour:

Sia - Clap Your Hands

Run DMC - It's Like that

#winning

Only 1.2kg to go until I've reached the 10kg since November!

Today I had a session at Alive with Scottie, and managed to overcome my Box Jumps fear! Pretty happy about that.

We got our work sponsored running shirts today for the Mothers Day Classic 10km this Sunday. Here's the back of my shirt:

Hopefully this is the shirt I will beat all my male colleagues in.

The "c" word

On Thursday, during my PT session with Paul from Alive, I said a word I never ever like saying when I'm training.

I "can't".

In the past week, I've discovered a CrossFit exercise that I really struggle with..

BOX JUMPS.

I struggled with the higher ones on Tuesday at B32, but I still tried hard to get a few out.

On Thursday, the bench Paul set out for me to jump on wasn't even as high as the tyre from Thursday. However, I froze. I couldn't even TRY one. It was the weirdest and wrongest feeling.

So. What to do? I'm going to have to practice them at some point, and make sure that never happens again, and hope that I don't find anything else to say I "can't" to. 

"Skinny" jeans? Yes please.

This morning while putting on my jeans, the jeans that have only recently started fitting again, I noticed they were feeling a bit large. So I thought it might be time to pull out the few pairs of "skinny" jeans I have floating around.

I have three pairs of "skinny" jeans. A pair of Roxy jeans, which I believed to be the closest to fitting, a pair of Giordano jeans, which I wore all the time in my last year in Brisbane & first year in Canberra, and a pair of size 9 Jeans West jeans that I bought right after I got out of hospital with pneumonia and I think fitted for about 2 weeks.



Roxy jeans



Giordano jeans



I first tried on the Roxy jeans, which I believed to be the biggest. It was a struggle, I could technically do them up but there would be no way I could wear them. Damn. Jeans fail.

I thought that would've been it, none of the jeans would fit. However, I decided to give the Giordano jeans a go, mostly to see if I could even do them up (last time I couldn't get close).

 

Amazingly, they fitted!

 

They fit!!



I then took a look at the sizes of these jeans. The Roxy jeans are a size 10, and the Giordano jeans are a size 27! 27?! That's apparently a size 9. Wtf! They must've done some serious stretching over the last few years...

I guess it could also be the jeans. The Roxy jeans are really stiff around the waist, where the Giordano ones are a bit stretchier.. and maybe the thigh area is bigger? Who knows. Damn inconsistent sizing.

 This is me in 2007 wearing the same jeans:



Around 5kg lighter.



Regardless, I don't really like the Roxy jeans, they're just there as a body shape indicator, on how much cms I'm losing.

Last night I went to my gym to get a re-assessment, I wanted to see how many cms I've lost. Turns out they've lost my records. Boohoo. I can just imagine they were good, big numbers.

The next challenge will be these babies:

These are my size 9 Jeans West jeans that I bought in January 2008. It was a month after I was in hospital with pneumonia, and I got under 60kg. I think they fitted me for a few weeks.

Actually, they may have never fitted. When I bought them I wanted the size 10, but the guy at Jeans West said to go down a size because they will stretch.

BIG MISTAKE.

I stretched instead.

Goals and how they change

In a few days, I have had this blog for 6 months. That means it has been nearly 6 months since I have been actively and seriously trying to lose 10kg.

How close am I? So very close, I'm 1.6kg away! I've been consistently at 8.4kg loss for a little while now. This is how my body seems to do things. It finds a weight, stays there for awhile, then drops, stays there for awhile, etc. This was annoying when I was 5kg heavier, but right now, I'm pretty damn happy with my weight. Not in a hurry to get that last 1.6kg off me.

Of course, once I have lost that final 1.6kg, I'm not done. I still want to lose at least another 3kg, but in time, and  just as a side effect of my training.

Going back to my first ever post on here, on 2 November 2010. I wrote out some goals, they were:

• 2km in under 10 minutes
• 5km in under 30 minutes
• 10km

Two of those goals done, the only one left is the first one. 2km in under 10 minutes. Tough. I haven't even tried a fast 2km in MONTHS. I've done a few single kms.

Looking at these goals, they're not over ambitious. The 2km is definitely the hardest, because, when writing the goals, it was the one I had never achieved (according to my old LJ I did, but I can't prove it, so, I say I lied).

It's probably time to write out some new goals. I hope that in 6 months I look at these and have either done them, or find them too easy.

• Run a marathon
• Run 10km in under 55 minutes

That's the main two I can think of. I'll probably start thinking of other goal soon (such as CrossFit related goals). But that's a good start. I guess 2km in under 10 minutes is still there.

When I'm just not enough

After the February 100km Challenge, I found myself with less motivation. My weekly kms dropped significantly. Even though I had the half marathon to train for, I really wasn't putting in the effort I should've been (and wanted to).

Yes, my half marathon was a success, I finished under my goal time, and mentally it was one of my most enjoyable runs, ever. However, before and after, I was a little off my game.

Afterwards I was allowing myself some slack, as I had achieved one of my major running goals, a goal I've had for over 5 years. But that was still no excuse. I meant to go for a run on Tuesday, didn't happen, meant to go for a run on Wednesday, didn't happen. Thursday I believe I only exercised because I had a PT session...

With winter coming up, I know I need more motivation than I can provide myself. I used to be fairly against having work out 'appointments' (group classes or PT sessions), but now I think they are very important to keep me focused and to add structure, which is going to be especially important over the next 5-6 months as I train to do the Melbourne Marathon.

Yesterday I met a guy called Ross, who has a CrossFit gym, B32 Crossfit, in Fyshwick. This came about from my search for a CrossFit gym, however I think I am going to get a lot more from Ross and his gym than I initially expected when searching for a CrossFit gym.

Ross, being an ex elite triathlete, knows a lot about running, and in particular, knows how CrossFit and running can work together.
I'm going to learn a lot from Ross, and hopefully change and improve myself, my running and my fitness for the better. The one thing I am really hoping to get out of training with him and at his gym, is the structure and focus I've been lacking lately. I want to feel accountable, I want to not let people down, and I want to achieve my goals. What I don't want? To make excuses, to slack off over winter, and to stop pushing myself.

Today I headed down to B32 for my first try out session. First up was mobility, which was AMAZING. I want to do this every day. I woke up pretty sore from my Thursday Fran workout, and have been walking around like a robot. I was very worried that this would interfere with the CrossFit workout I had in store. However, after the mobility exercises, I felt so relaxed and so much more flexible.

After this, was the 'warm up'. We did some skipping (something I haven't done in years, and knew it would come up soon). I actually found this to hurt the balls of my feet quite a bit. I suspect this was from doing it in my Frees. I think the more I do it, the easier it will be. We also did some inch worm pushups, which were okay (pleased not too many push ups, my enemy of exercises).

We then moved onto some kettlebells, which was hard work! And then we got prepared to do the REAL hard work.

Today we did anchored sit ups, with 10 jumpy things in between. 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 sit ups. Holy moly. That's a lot of sit ups. This was for time. I wasn't too concerned on going crazy, especially as it was my first workout with these guys. With how I was feeling at the 30 rep point, I was pretty happy just to finish the lot. Phew. Think I managed to do them in 9:01. Amazed at how fast some of the guys can smash them out.

Every time I've done a CrossFit workout, during it, I hate it so much. Absolute hate. However, the feeling afterwards is pretty good. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have done it a second time.

Heading back to B32 on Monday for my next torture session.

No pain, no gain, right?

Half marathon wrap up

Woke up at 5am, after getting to sleep at around 1am (went to bed before 10pm...).

Showered, had breakfast, had some tummy issues that were slowly sorting themselves out.

Headed to Telopea, and it was RAINING.

Smashed down a Gu Gel, some nutrient water, and headed to the back of the pack.

Start of the race was great, felt very happy. First 5km was over before I knew it, the rain did not stop though, and going through the trees meant the rain was a bit heavier coming off the trees.

Heading up the slight incline towards Parliament House, ran around it, we came back down the same way we went up, I decided to speed up since it was a slight downhill. Not long after this I started to notice that my socks were most definitely wet, and they felt like they were scrunching. I stopped for a second to pull them up. Kept going.

Just before 10km there was a water station, I smashed down another Gu Gel and had some water to wash it down. Around this point I could tell I definitely had a blister, I told myself who cares, ignore it, keep going.

We turned around somewhere near 10km to start lap two... heading up to Kings Ave wasn't as incliney as I was expecting, but once we got there I looked forward and towards Parkes Way looked like much more of a hill than I was imagining. Groan.

After the hill, I felt super, it was about 12-13km at this point I think. Sped up a bit, even did a bit of singing.

Gu station was at 15km, I grabbed one for later. High fived a kid on the side of the road (one of the highlights!).

Once we hit the 'marathoners go this way, half marthoners turn around here' I started to feel a bit fatigued, I think this was about 16km. There was a small hill getting onto Commonwealth. Marathoners were over taking me left and right. This was also the most I had ever run.

I set miCoach up so that it would keep me within the pace I wanted to be in. This was between 8km/h and 9.5km/h. If I went too fast (which I generally ignored, because if I was running fast it was because it felt right) it told me to slow down, if I went too slow (which only happened on water stops and one of the inclines) it told me to speed up.

I always imagined that once I got off Commonwealth Ave bridge that the end would be in sight, there was less than 4km to go, which would be what, 25 minutes at that pace? I could tell I was well on pace to finish under 2:30 (my time goal), however earlier on in the race I thought I might even get under 2:20!

Just getting off the bridge I felt the struggle, I had another Gu, some water, and pushed through.

I overtook a lady that I remember overtaking in the 10km Sri Chinmoy run, this made me pleased.

19km there was another water stop, took it. Needed the push for a fast final km.

Around this point this couple that I had been over taking, being over taken by, etc over took me. Couldn't let this happen. I pushed forward and got under 6min/km. This was really really difficult. At one point I had a near out of body experience. My legs felt a bit of burn, but not too much. Groan again.

The guy who won the Marathon passed me just after the 20km point, my aim was to finish at approx the same time, hey, I was only a 1km behind!

Once I passed the corner and could see the finish I went for it, got up over 12km/h and just kept going.

Think I finished at 2:26, miCoach says 2:25:30. But miCoach told me I did an extra km.

It rained the entire way, I don't remember it stopping for a second.

I have multiple blisters, chaffing in numerous spots and I'm frigging tired.

But considering I not only finished, but beat my goal time, I'm pretty happy!

One kg at a time

Today I finally weighed in at a new low weight. It's been awhile.

I've been taking it pretty easy in terms of weight loss, with the focus being on running and training for the half marathon. It's still nice to see the efforts paying off on the scales.

I've lost 9.4kg since August, 8.4kg since November!

Slack fingers, faster legs

Gosh, it's been awhile since I updated.

It's been a fairly eventful few weeks. Achievements to note:

15km run
This was in training for the half marathon that is THIS SUNDAY. I did it in 1:53:40. Don't really care how long I took, main thing was that I did it.
After the run I was a wreck, and when I say wreck, that's an understatement. I was pretty sure I was dying, and close to sending myself to hospital. This was due to not getting any food into me for 2 hours after the run. Rookie mistake. After some toast and gastrolyte I was all good.

Fast 3km
Just 2 days after the 15km, I pushed out a 3km in 17:52, which broke the 6min/km pace goal I am on. It was significantly easier than the 3km that I did in 18:17 a couple of months ago. Pleasing.

Faster 1km
Lately I've been pushing out some sub 5 minute kms. I've done a handful recently. They're all very much just under, with my best being 4:57. Main thing is it's consistent. But I hope that next week to I can get closer to 4:30.

They have all been pretty good achievements. But overall I have been pretty slack. I tried to get a 10km done on Sunday (last chance training before half marathon), but didn't even make 3km. This was from bad food choices during the day, but I also suspect from not training enough lately.

So....

Today I forced myself to go to the gym at lunch, I nearly piked because I was hungry, but I shovelled down some fruit and went anyway.

Guess what I did.

SUB 30 MIN 5km!

Finally! And not only sub 30 minutes, but my BEST 5km EVER recorded. EVER. My previous best was 29:45, and this was in 2006. Today I did 29:20.

It was pretty easy going, but afterwards I was very red for quite sometime. Got a lot of comments at work, but I was on a big rush from the speedy run that I didn't care at all.

I think this is due to a combination of longer runs and the fast kms. Because my fast kms are running well over 12km/h speed, running at 10km/h is pretty cruisy now, and I can now maintain that easily for 5km.

Next I have to double that.

But not only that, I have to take a few more minutes off. Challenging some guys at work in the Mothers' Day 10km, and we're aiming for sub 55min 10km. I think I can actually do it, I know the course well (bridge to bridge run x 2), there are pretty much no hills... yeah, I can do it.

But, before that. I have to run 21.1km. Did I mention that is THIS SUNDAY.

Pushing the Boundaries

I haven't been doing as many workouts this month as I have last month, but the intensity of them is up.

On Sunday I did the 10km Sri Chinmoy fun run. I managed to get a time of 64:25, which is my best 10km of recent times. My second 5km was just over 31 minutes, which is amazing for me. Amazing considering the hills that are on the course, especially at the 9km point. I have not felt physical exhaustion like that before.

Yesterday I had my first PT session with my new trainer, Scott. It was just a short 15 minute Cross Fit test to set a benchmark and for Scott to see what level I am up to. It didn't sound so bad, I had to do:

* 5 bar over my head things
* 10 push ups (knees)
* 15 sit ups (anchored)
* 20 squats
* 250m on the rower

Then again, and again, and again. As much as I can in 15 minutes. I managed to get through 3 full sets and got up to sits ups in the fourth (did about 4).

The first two sets were a piece of cake, and I did them within the first half of the 15 minutes. The 3rd was harder, the 4th was just agony. I felt pretty wrecked afterwards. As horrible as it was, I was pleased I had given it my absolute all.

Scott said the way he trains, I will hit a wall many times with him where I physically won't be able to do what he tells me. Sounds horrible, but it's what I want.

I suspect I will spew in at least one of the sessions with him

--

There is less than a month until the half marathon. Scary. This weekend I am going to *attempt* a 15km run. The forecast is shit, so not sure if I can do it outside. I'd really rather not do it on the tready, but I might have to.

Outside running, PT interviews

A good friend of mine who completed the February 100km challenge with me, has decided to do 50km of outside running in March. I think I am also going to attempt to achieve this, although not as officially as I did the February 100km Challenge.

So far, I've done 7km!

Last night I did 7km of the 10km Sri Chinmoy Running Course that I am running on Sunday in a fun run. I was hoping that being aware of the course I am doing will help on Sunday. I was particularly interested in it as it's described as hilly and challenging. The last run I did that was described as challenging I didn't believe it really would be..

It has quite a few hills. It's an out and back course, and unfortunately all hills are up and down, so on the way back you practically have to do them again.

My pace for my run yesterday was shithouse, but my heart rate was in the 150s for quite a bit of it. Usually my heart rate is in the 160-170s, sometimes in the 180s. This is a good sign.

After the run I felt confident that I will be able to do the Canberra Half Marathon in just over 5 weeks. Yes I have to do what I did x 3, but I think at that pace (over 7 minute per km) I'l be alright. It'll be a slow going 21km, but it's totally doable.

Going to do another outside run tonight, might just run near my house though.

--

Tonight I am meeting another potential PT. He works out of my gym, which is lucky. I just did some research on him and he does CrossFit training, and has trained one of the local AFL teams. Excellent signs.

I think he'll be intense enough. However, I'm worried that I'll meet him, and he'll assign another trainer to me.

I still haven't used my 3 PT sessions at my gym, which I bought in August. Oops.

Burning at Flames Fitness

Last night I had a Personal Training session at Flames Fitness. Flames Fitness is a 'Personal Fitness Training' gym, so it's not like any other gym I've been too.

The easiest way to describe it is like a Biggest Loser training session, but I'd say without the intensity. There are many trainers floating around the gym, and many people per trainer. The trainers go around to each person, tell them what to do, go to the next, etc.

I really liked the environment, I had the guidance and assistance of my trainer, but when it came to doing the actual workouts I was left to my own devices. There is the chance of not doing what they tell you to do, so you need some of your own internal motivation, but I don't have a problem with that.

I have another session lined up for tomorrow after work, and I'm going to consider joining. I might also try some other Personal Trainers. Not sure yet.

The workout I did at Flames was pretty intense. I did lots of arm/back exercises with weights. Then some leg exercises with the fit ball. I then did a crazy 10 minute interval workout on the treadmill, then 5 x 200m on the rowing machine, ab work, and finished with 5 minutes on the cross trainer with 30 second sprint intervals. The cross trainer was by far the worst. At this point I wanted to cry, I wanted to give up. This was the point where I realised hey, I could give up and he would never know, but where I am going to get doing that? Nowhere, so I pushed through each interval, and made sure my last interval was my best.

One of the positives of this gym is, they make sure you stretch after. This is something that I don't do that much of after workouts.

--

I haven't been running (except for the 1.5km on Monday in my Frees) since finishing the 100km on Saturday. Tonight I plan on doing a test of the Sri Chinmoy 10km course that I'm running on Sunday morning. It's a 10km 'hilly, challenging' course. Sounds terrible. Would be fantastic if I can do it today and on Sunday.

After this weekend I need to ramp up my kms, really would like to try to do a 15km over the long weekend (12-14th March). Just need to find somewhere where I can run that far.

Weight success, New shoes, March training

On Sunday morning I did a Wii Fit weigh-in. For awhile I was doing them every morning, but lately I've only been doing it a few times a week. Sunday morning was the first morning weigh-in in some time.

Somehow (possibly from lots of running and not eating much), between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning I lost 1.8kg! It's the biggest weight jump I've had on Wii Fit. This put my BMI to 25.08, which is *SO* close to ideal. I haven't been 'ideal' according to Wii Fit for 2 years.

I also tried on a few pairs of old jeans, I have a pair of 3/4 jeans I have had for nearly 10 years. These have always been my 'if these fit, I'm happy with my weight'. At my lightest in 2007 I was able to take these jeans off without undoing them. Anyway, I tried them on a couple of weeks ago and couldn't do them up. On Sunday, I could do them up! I wouldn't quite say they fit, they're a bit too tight to comfortably wear. I'd say in 2kg they will be wearable. Exciting. I have another pair of shorts that I really like that are even closer to fitting. I think I need to grab my old clothes from storage and see what fits! Will save me buying new clothes.

--

Last night I did a short outside run in my "Nike Free Run+" shoes. This is the first time I've attempted 'barefoot' running. The shoes really do force you to run differently. I found it alright, I felt that I exerted myself much less with the running style, my heart rate was very low, in the 150s, and the run felt like nothing. I only did 1.5km, but it felt like I didn't even do a km. That also could be the outside running helping with that....

After the run my right foot muscles (on top of my foot) hurt, and my calves were pretty tight. I think I am going to wait until after the half marathon before training myself to run in these shoes. I have very little time to prepare for the 21km (less than 6 weeks now), and don't want to waste any time.

--

Tonight I have my first trial PT session at a 'Personal Training Gym'. I've always been a bit funny about personal trainers that work at gyms, but if this is a pure personal training gym, it might be okay. At least it's free to give it a go.

This Sunday I have a 10km Sri Chinmoy Fun Run. I paid for it yesterday, so I'm locked in (although $15 doesn't really lock me in...). Apparently it's quite hilly and challenging. According to the half marathon training guide I printed out I should be running 16km this weekend. I think 10km outside with hills and with people is much better to do. I'll try to get closer to 15km the weekend after.

Pleased there is a long weekend soon, I need the extra days off for training! I need to try for some long runs (10km+) a couple of times a week, and I can't do that at lunch time, and I don't really like running after work.

I also need to try to do 2km under 10minutes. I've decided this is my only March challenge, the speed work once or twice a week will be good, and I don't see it impacting on my half marathon training.

February 100km Challenge Wrap up

Yesterday I completed the 100kms!

Friday: 4km in 26:35
Saturday: 6km in 40:35

I'm pretty tired. Here's some stats from February:

Total Weight Loss: 2.9kg
Days of running: 18 days
Amount of runs: 22 runs
Calories burnt (according to miCoach): 8951 calories
Time spent running: 11:02:51
Average Pace: 6:32
Average distance of runs: 4.5km
Longest run: 10km (day 20)
Shortest run: 1km (Day 18)
Fastest pace: 5:36mins per km (1km, day 18)
Slowest pace: 6:50mins per km (6km, day 6)
Average Heart Rate: 170bpm

--

Originally my reward was going to be a GHD, but I wasn't really that excited about it. I then changed my mind to an Xbox, but once I started researching I decided I didn't really need one.

Instead I just wandered the shops trying to find something I wanted.

I ended up buying these:

A pair of Nike Free "Run". They didn't have any pink so I went with orange.

Pretty keen to get out for a run today in these.

Running Readings

In the last few months I've purchased/been given quite a few running/fitness books.

Yesterday this book was delivered to the office:

I haven't had a chance to start reading it yet, but it looks pretty good.

I found out about it from the million emails that Runner's World sends me daily.

The chapter I'm looking forward to reading is the one on nutrition. It's definitely one of the things I need to work on. The other being core strength/leg strength.

Strength is being addressed by seeing a Personal Trainer, which starts on Tuesday. Hopefully they can help with nutrition, but otherwise I'll just have to try to figure it out.

I recently finished reading '50 Marathons in 50 Days'. I really enjoyed this book. If you're not a runner I can't imagine you'd get anything out of it.

The only problem with this book is that Dean Karnazes makes running a marathon sound so easy. He mentions a bunch of first time marathon runners that are able to run with him the whole way (he adjusts his pace, but he still runs all marathons well under 5 hours).

Somehow, I don't think a marathon is as easy as he makes it out to be. Especially running 50 in 50 days. What a lunatic.

I bought Lance Armstrong's book after reading Born to Run, as it was mentioned a few times in there. But I've yet to read it.

I bought Susie Burrell's 'Losing the Last 5kg' when I was searching for Michelle Bridges' version of it. Turned out it hadn't been released yet when I was looking.

I actually had seen quotes from Burrell's book in Cleo/Cosmo/Madison at one point. So I thought I'd give it a go.

Burrell lists a detox diet at the beginning of the book. At the time of reading her detox diet included more food than I was actually eating. So, I gave it a go. With some modifications. Her detox soup was quite nice, and I enjoyed having turkey and rice for dinner for over a week.

However, as I started to ramp up into February to run 100km I had to stop the silly eating habits. It wasn't working, I needed so much more fuel.

I haven't really read Michelle Bridges' book yet. I skimmed through it, but generally didn't find it containing anything that was motivating/helpful for me. I can see for beginner exercisers it would be okay. But not really for me.

At the moment I'm taking a break from fitness/health books and also from biographies (just finished 127 Hours, also have Portia De Rossi's book to read), and reading 'The Slap' by Christos Tsiolkas.

The Final Countdown

10km to go!

That's totally going to be only 2 runs at the most. Doubt I'd be able to push out a 10km tomorrow.

Today's 6km was quite tough. I was on an unknown treadmill in an unknown environment. The damn treadmill decided to 'cool down' at 30 minutes, so I had to do a quick stop/start again, and had to calculate what 6km minus 4.64km was to figure out what was left. My brain doesn't play nice with maths when running (or recovering from running).

Yay!

Oops

Look what I just did:

Tiring February

There are 5 days left of February. Tiring, exhasting February.

Yesterday I managed to get out a good 6km, my fastest yet. 38:44 I think it was. Before that my best was over 39 minutes.

16km to go!

I have my running gear with me today, I think I'm committed to going to the Anytime Fitness gym again. I'll try to do another 6km, hoping for a bit more than that. However, I'm driving a colleague so she'll be stuck at the gym until I finish.

Then the question is, do I finish up in one or two runs? If I do 6km today, I have 10km left. I can do that in one run, but I'd need to rest tomorrow and try to do it on Saturday. The risk is I won't be able to run 10km on Saturday (I can't always run 10km...I need to be in the right body and head space for it). Then I'll have to run on Sunday. Which is not what I want to do.

So, I could run 6-7km today, attempt to finish tomorrow night. If I don't, then I should have a do-able amount on Saturday.

Looking forward to Sunday, a very big rest day.

March Speed Challenge

March is nearly here, and I need to decide what my challenge for March shall be.

I decided a week or so ago that March would be my month to improve my running speed. Speed is not something I am great on improving. Generally I am a pretty slow runner. People who run much less than me can run 5km nearly 10 minutes faster than I can. Not fair.

I think this is due to the way I trained myself to run 6 years ago. I was always a slow and steady runner. I was always about distance. Based on this I think I am stuck at running a certain speed, unless I push myself to go faster.

Thoughts for some goals for March:

• 2km in under 10 minutes
• 3km in under 18 minutes
• 5km in under 30 minutes

The first two I am slightly confident I can pull off. 3km in 18 minutes is the easiest of them. My best is 18:17. But my best 2km is 11:30. My best 1km is 5:30ish, so I can possibly get closer to 11, but under 10?

5km in under 30 minutes will probably be the hardest, but it's the one I have actually done before. I have to maintain a 10kph+ speed for 5km. Yikes. Apparently I have done 2km in under 10 minutes, according to my old LJ, but I don't remember it.

I feel like my March speed challenge will be harder than my February 100km challenge. This is why I have booked some Personal Training. I need to strengthen my legs, and push myself in ways that I don't think of.

I wish I could live at Camp Biggest Loser.

February 100km Challenge: Day 22

So very close! 22km to go, on day 22!

I ran 3km yesterday at the new Anytime Fitness gym in Fyshwick. The treadmill was pretty neat. I really liked the footage of running around a 400m track.

I'm doing much better running at higher speeds, I ran at over 10.5 for well over 500m yesterday, towards the end of my 3km. Very pleased.

Tried to beat my best 3km, but was too late when I decided to do that. 18:34. Not too bad though.

Last night my legs were very uncomfortable. I think I need a rest from the 10km Sunday and 3km yesterday. I'll then try for a 6km tomorrow.

My abs were looking pretty neat this morning. Think they'll look pretty good after I lose another 5kg!

February 100km Challenge - Day 20

There's just over 1 week remaining for my challenge. It's going to be over very soon.

Yesterday I was supposed to do a 6km run, but I got so addicted to my computer game I didn't even change out of my PJs, let alone leave the house for a run.

Today I wasn't going to let that happen, I went straight to the gym after finally (finishing) watching Inception, before I got the chance to play the computer.

Plan was to do only 6km. This would leave 4km to do tomorrow, and since I'm committed to a gym session tomorrow it was no big deal.

They have moved the treadmills around slightly at the gym, as I mentioned in the last post. There are now only 2 of the treadmills I actually want to use, because one broke (wasn't me!). After I hopped on, a girl who was running on one of the shit treadmills moved over to the other one, so she was next to me. She started running while I started my 2-3 minute warm up walk.

Run was comfortable, the acupressure massage on Friday (and rest yesterday) must've sorted out whatever was causing my ankle stiffness. At the 1km point I knew I could get to 6km. At 4km I was pretty comfortable, the girl next to me was also still running.

Sometimes I make a competition in my head with people who are in the gym when I'm there. The girl next to me seemed like good competition, at 5km she was still going. Usually I have won by now. At about that point I decided a 10km was possible, I should try it. This would get me to where I needed to be to start the week, plus I really needed to do one as I have a 10km fun run in exactly 2 weeks. Plus. there is no way this girl could run for 70 minutes. What are the chances?

Getting closer to 10k, the girl next to me wasn't letting up. She was doing faster intervals than I could do, she was putting up the incline, and she was also reading a newspaper. What a machine. For the last 2km I felt she was matching my pace, we were almost running in sync with each other. It was pretty good actually. I thought she might stop when I stopped.

Last 300m I did a sprint to the end. When I say sprint, I only got it up to 12kph speed at the end, but after 9.9km that's not an easy effort. Luckily I had my current favourite running song making that easier (Killing in the Name by RATM).

Total time for 10km was 66:42. Not bad. Second 5km definitely significantly slower than the first, I had the treadmill down to 8kph at one point, around 7km, just to give myself some recovery time so I could do the full distance.

The girl next to me was STILL RUNNING when I finished. She was also still running 10 minutes later when I cleaned the treadmill. I didn't get a chance to look at her distance, but it had to be close to 15km with the pace she was going. So impressed.

I wonder if she wants a new friend.

When I got home after my shower I did a weigh in, I was under 7kg loss. 7.2kg loss to be exact. That's a huge milestone. It gets me under a weight I haven't been at for close to 2 years.

Only 2.8kg to go. (But then I want to lose another 2kg at least).

Whitsunday's is now looking like it's going to happen. But I don't know if I want to go in winter or not. I think I might wait until spring, close to my birthday. Hopefully I can be more than 5kg lighter than I am now. That would be awesome.

Computer game time now. I think I've deserved it.

Change of plans, change of pace

I didn't run last night. I got home, started playing Test Drive Unlimited 2, and kept on playing until after 8pm. By this point I knew there was no chance I could change, drive to the gym, and run a decent amount before they closed.

So it was a rest day. No big deal right? Considering I ran the two days before. I felt pretty guilty thought, I was sitting on my arse playing computer games for nearly 3 hours. Wrong!

Instead I ran today at lunch time, I wasn't originally planning too, but I figured TDU2 was too big of a risk to my running. So today lunch time it was.

When I got to the gym, there were two guys running on my treadmills. OH NO I thought. It was bound to happen one day, I'll just deal with using one of the small ones. As I walk over I notice the new one, that previously was facing the wrong way, which made it oh-so unappealing to use, was moved and facing the right way.

So I try the new one. It's been moved to face the right way, but it's still right next to the door and reception. High traffic area! The little holders for water/etc were on a weird angle and very annoying for my iPod and miCoach.

Anyways, so I run, and less than 1km in my left ankle decides to be a big fat jerk again. I feel deflated, I start thinking there is no way I can finish my 100km in this state. I think I am close to injury, I MAY HAVE TO GIVE UP.

I pushed through to 1.5km. Decided to do some upper body weights. That was fun, it was hard. I managed to get to a point where I physically could not move the bars. Very pleased.

After the weights, I notice my treadmills are free. Woohoo, I think. I'll give it another go.

I jump on, but my mood is so bad that I only manage to get through 1.5km to round the run up to 3km. I walk it off, I feel angry, I feel annoyed. MY STUPID ANKLE IS CAUSING ME SO MUCH STRESS.

The anger was helpful, I decide to use this anger to get back at my STUPID ANKLE. How about a fast km? I think to myself. So, I start the treadmill at 10 speed, and start running again. at 0.3km I push it up to 10.6, planning to only catch up from the slow time that the treadmill speeds up. After 0.5km, when I am a few seconds under my target, I decide 10.6 is staying. So, I stay at 10.6. I'm pretty sure at 0.7km I pushed it up to 11, then at 0.8km up to 11.5, 0.9km 12 and 0.95 up to 12.5.

5:39! Best km (solo km) yet!

I stop, I feel proud, I have a sense of 'TAKE THAT STUPID ANKLE' (which meanwhile, is not causing me any grief).

That took me to 4km. Not bad. But I wasn't satisfied.

So, off I go again, another fast km. I really don't think I could do as well as the first. I just hope to be under 6 minutes. I do the same as last time, 10.6 at the 0.3km point. However, before 0.7 I start to increase the speed. I don't really know what speeds I did when, it was a bit more random button pushing. But my final speed was 12.7km

5:36! Woohoo!

That took me to 5km. I really need to do 6km to be back on target. So, I did an easy 1km on about 9 speed to round that up to 6km.

Very pleased with my gym workout today. I am incredibly fatigued, was forced to play table tennis this afternoon anyway... tiring (and I lost, again).

35km to go!

Ideally I want to be at 25km by end of Monday. That's only 10km in 3 days, totally doable.

Getting Chinese acupressure massage tonight, hoping this sorts out my ankle issue. I suspect the cause of my ankle issue is actually my knee/calf. I'm slightly worried that I'll be sore from the massage tomorrow, but I have the space to be able to skip a run tomorrow if need be.

Crikey, I might actually be able to do this 100km.

February 100km Challenge - Day 17

I've done two runs since my last post.

Tuesday, I wanted to do a minimum of 4km, but was hoping for 6km. Early on my left ankle was causing me some grief, and at the 1.5km point I had to stop and risk injury. I loosened it out, got back on, and did another 1.5km. This meant I was only 0.6km off target... not too bad.

Wednesday, I also wanted to do 6km, at least 5km so that I would be back on target. Early on again I had the same ankle problem. 2km in I stopped, loosened my shoe right up, stretched it, etc. Got back on, and about 1km in I was feeling heaps better. Managed to stick at it for 4km all up for that run, plus the 2km before I stopped made 6km. Hooray.

Today I went to a new gym that has opened up near work with a colleague. It's one of those Anytime gyms, open 24 hours. They had some spiffy looking treadmills - Foxtel, iPod dock, USB upload thingy, personal trainers IN the treadmill. Very spiffy.

My colleague signed up, I wasn't so sure as it's not as close to home as my other gym (which is half way between work and home). They do have one practically across the road from home, but it would be 30 days before I would be able to use any of their gyms. Hmmn.

I decided to get one of their 7 day passes to try it out. I'll see how it goes. If the treadmills are that amazing, well, I'll sign up. I'm tempted to even have 2 gym memberships. I'll see how I feel. Could be silly.

So now I'm kind of tempted to try out the new gym tonight, but the fact that it won't be staffed is a little weird. Not sure that I like it.

One thing I really like about the gym, the treadmills look OUT THE WINDOW. Not at the testosterone filled weights section.

One thing I don't like about the gym, it smells like paint. Gross. That can't be good for my lungs.

I think tonight I'll go to my usual gym, and wait until Monday.

If I can pull of 6km tonight, I'll be ahead for tomorrow, so I will be able to rest tomorrow. Here's hoping. Please be nice to me ankle. (I skipped wearing heels today to try to help it out).

Rest days galore

Yesterday I had my second rest day in four days! Amazing.

I was able to rest again so soon because I hit the half way mark a day early, after I did a 6km at the gym on Sunday afternoon. Was a pretty good run, time was 39:19, which is just short of my best time.

During my run, during one of my speed up intervals my iPod cracked it and was stuck going to max volume. This was way too loud and while running I had to change my iPod settings to lower the max volume. While doing this I totally forgot what speed I was doing and just continued to run while fixing my iPod. I ended up doing double my faster interval than what I would've done. Argh. Was buggered. It sure did help my time, but I think it stopped any chance that I was going to try to do an extra km to get under half way.

Silly.

Sunday night and last night have not been the healthiest in terms of eating. This has taken 0.8kg off my weight loss. That's not too bad really. I think I got over excited with my 7kg weight loss anyway, using a weight in straight after a 6km run.

I am confident I can get over 7kg loss by the end of the week with a few long runs. That will be exciting.

If I'm really lucky I might be able to coincide my 10kg with my 100km. It's a bit of an ask, 3-4kg in 2 weeks is too much. I wouldn't be able to sustain that.

Lunch time run today, going to go for 6km. As long as I do 4km, I'm on track.

February 100km Challenge: Day 12

Today I did a 6km run at the lake. I did a lap, turned around for another 500m then turned back for the last 500m. It was my most comfortable outside run I've had. Was fantastic. I was definitely experiencing my running trance, I have little memory for most of the run. Excellent. Time was nothing special, spot on 40 minutes.

This takes my February total to 44km, 56km to go!

32km of those km have been in the last 7 days! Insane!

I also discovered that miCoach is accurate in terms of both distance and time. This means the treadmill is wrong, and I've been running further and faster than I've been thinking. My 10km according to miCoach was done in less than 65 minutes. That's super.

Big news on the weight side also. I have reached 7kg loss. This is fantastic. This means I can officially go shopping for new clothes, even though I did some on Thursday and this morning. Oh well, I didn't jump the gun by too far.

3kg to go! However I know after those 3kg ideally I'll be looking at losing another 5kg to get back to the weight I was when I first moved to Canberra. I suspect because I had little muscle on me back then this will be unlikely. Hopefully the goal of fitting into my size 9 jeans I bought back in January 2008 should do it.

Finally, a Rest Day

I've been considering a rest day for a couple of days now. Last night I attempted a 6km run, but struggled and only got to 4km. I then hoped to rest, do another 2km, but just could not do it.

I think my body is starting to struggle with this excessive running!

I was telling myself to have a break today, but then part of me was thinking noo I have to stay on track, if I do 2km tonight then I'll still be right on target.

I had a few people tell me I really needed to rest, I wasn't listening. It was only when I started googling how bad running 7 days a week is that I decided, hey, maybe I should rest. My muscles clearly need to recover!

Weight was down again today. Official weight loss is now at 6kg. 4kg to go.

Naughty

I was supposed to wait until I lost 7kg before I let myself go clothes shopping. But I already was getting frustrated with the lack of clothes fitting me, so I did some today.

I managed to fit into some size 10 clothes! Totally unexpected!

Yesterday I did a 4km run at lunch time, today I am not running until tonight. This is the longest break between runs all week. My legs felt quite sore while walking around the shops, I think I should wear heels less.

More weight loss! At 5.7kg loss this morning. Excellent.

February 100km Challenge - Day 9

I've been terrible at updating this blog. Here is what I've been up to since my last post:

Friday 4th Feb: 7km
Sunday 6th Feb: 6km with the Canberra Running Club - this was TOUGH. My time still hasn't been posted on the website, but I think it was about 41-42 minutes.
Monday 7th Feb: 3km
Tuesday 8th Feb: 6km at lunch time, 3km after work

This brings my total km for February to 30km! Which is exactly where I hoped to be according to my diary at this point.

70km to go! That's an average of 3.5km per day now.

I've noticed on miCoach that my average heartrate has been slowly decreasing. Very pleased about this.

Weight loss hasn't changed much. I've decided to not focus on eating as much this month, I was burning out too quickly with all the running and low calorie intake. Although I still am down a little bit at the moment. Weight loss is at 5.4kg. 1.7kg until I can go shopping.

Challenge Set Back

Something I hadn't even considered happened - I got sick on Day 2!

Luckily, I seem to be recovering fast and am a lot better today. But today I am 5.8km off target. Oh no!

If I don't feel any worse throughout the day I will go for a run tonight, I probably shouldn't go too hard, but I will at least do 3km, 5km if I feel good.

I can't get too far behind!

I think I need to reconsider my diet to try to get more nutrients than I currently am. My diet of Salmon/Turkey, Rice and Zuccini for most meals is probably not the greatest. More fruit and vegies please!

EDIT: Don't think I should run tonight, feels like I'm coming down with a fever. Crap it.

Introducing...the February 100km challenge

So I've been talking about this for a little while, and tomorrow it starts. The February 100km challenge.

Basically I need to get up my kms in February to get a overall total of over 100km. Being a short month makes it a little harder, but that's the point.

I've got some rules:

• The kms must be completely running kms only. No walk/run intervals can count. UNLESS the run interval is at least 1km in distance.
• Each run that is added to the total distance must be at least 1km.
• Each run that is added ideally will be in full kms. But I think I will accept half km additions. I don't normally do them so I doubt they will get added. Later on in the month I might be happy I am lenient on this rule.
• If I get an injury over the month, the challenge is over for me
• At least one run must be outside

I think that's all of my rules, I might add more later today if I remember something I've forgotten.

I should relax tonight to prepare, but I am going to do water aerobics to strengthen my muscles instead.

Half way!

Got out for a run today, and did 6km.

Just before 5km I was thinking it was going a bit tough, and thought I might be able to make my fastest ever 5km. So I did a sprint to get to 5km, and was *just* short of my fastest, so to 'punish' myself I had to finish the 6km as planned.

Was just short of my last 6km, with a time of 39:49. If I had known what my best 6km time was, and that I was close I might've pushed harder. I honestly thought it was in the 38s.

Anyways, after my run I was over 5kg loss, and I've maintained it for the rest of the day, so I'm calling it. I've lost 5kg! Which means 5kg to go. Well, my last weigh in put me at 5.5kg, so 4.5kg to go! Less than 2kg to go before I can go clothes shopping again.

Very pleased.

Tuesday is the beginning of my tough February challenge. I'll post details on it here tomorrow.

So I'll either do a short run tomorrow, and maybe water aerobics, or just one, or none.

Think there is a run on the weekend, a 6km for women only, which I might do. It's about time I did an outside run. I think my last one was Boxing Day.

Super motivated

I've been in Melbourne for a few days. I haven't managed to go for a run since Sunday, but I did play an hour of tennis on Tuesday.

Weight is pretty much exactly the same as it was before I went to Melbourne, which is great. I found it easy to stick to my healthy eating habits while away. It's really not that hard to do.

Today I plan on doing a long run, in about 2 hours or so. Hopefully I can pull off another 10km, but I think I'll find it won't be as easy as the first time. It never is as easy as the first time. I don't think I'm ready to go further than 10km just yet.

While in Melbourne I was shopping in Target and ended up in the beachwear section. It got me super motivated to get myself to the Whitsundays. Only 5.2kg to go. Can't wait.

I was bad and tried on a dress before I reached 7kg, but I didn't buy it. It was a size 12 and it fitted easily. I think after the 5kg loss I will be a 10-12, instead of 12-14. Hooray.

Strength and Weakness

Today I feel like I am struggling. It has occurred to me that I am putting most of my internal strengths into my exercise and 'diet', and there is not much left to go around.

I just let myself have a tiny slice of banana bread and some camomile tea to try to pick myself up a bit. Wish I had some strawberries.

I wasn't able to run at lunch time today, I was too hungry and I'm quite busy. I can try to go tonight, but Monday night is the gym busy night. I suppose I could do with a rest. I might not run tomorrow though as I have tennis at lunch time.

Hmmn. Damn addictions, I really could use a runner's high right now. I wonder if I get my work done by 4pm if I could leave early...

Addiction

After my 10km on Saturday, you would think I would give myself a rest? No! I don't work like that.

Yesterday after some wandering around looking at fridges, which gave my legs a good stretching, I really felt like another run. I decided to call it my "recovery" run. I read after a marathon you need to do one, so why not after 10km?

3km sounded like a good figure, a nice easy distance for me now.

So I do my 3km, in 19:18, which is not too bad for me, not my best, but not my worst. Afterwards I'm just not satisfied, so I do a 5:48 1km also. That was a nice tough one, I felt my legs burning, very nice!

Did some more yoga this morning and added some muscle workouts to it. After the 10km on Saturday I was down 1kg, each day since I have been down an extra 0.1kg. That brings my 'official' weightloss today to 4.5kg.

5.5kg to go! Officially..

--

I'm going to Melbourne on Wednesday, and not sure if I will be able to run after Wednesday until Sunday. The plan is to run both today and tomorrow to make up for it. I can always run Wednesday morning before my flight, but I doubt I will. Morning runs? Not for me thanks.

Run to Paradise

I just got home from doing my first 10km in many years.

Time according to treadmill: 1:08:35. MiCoach time for 10km: 1:04:35 (http://www.adidas.com/au/micoach/WorkoutDetails.aspx?WID=e60fc50a-2431-4175-997f-ada62f6d3718).

Pretty pleased with either, miCoach time is within my current goal time for 10km, if I were to do a 10km fun run, that's the time I would want to do it in.

It was both difficult and easy. Straight up I knew I could do it, the run was comfortable from the get-go. At about 2.5km I was starting to feel a little fatigued and started to question the possibility. I told myself from the beginning that it was simply 20 x 500m. And whenever I really struggled I told myself how many 500m to go, and it seemed less daunting.

Once I hit the half way point I knew I could do it, I was comfortable for about 80% of the run, had a few struggles but mostly was pretty good. If I set out to do a 12km I probably could've done it, but I wouldn't have wanted to.

On the way home I had a severe case of 'Runner's high'. I sent many text messages, have posted on Twitter and Facebook, to have no one 'congratulate' me. I find that upsetting because of the crazy high I was at. Yes, I feel that I need some validation for what I have done. Previously when I was running 10km I would always have someone to talk to about it as soon as I got home, and to 'share' my joy with. Disappointed that no one is 'here' for me during this very important time in my running journey.

But I won't let that get me too down. I achieved 2 of my goals within 69 minutes. 7km and 10km.

I have decided on the Brisbane Running Festival in August to take on my first half marathon. Plenty of time to train.

Now I look forward to my next 10km, and to be able to share the moment with someone (anyone) would be nice for next time. However it's not going to be anywhere near as special at this moment now, I guess this one is just for me.

Thoughts..

On the way to work this morning I was thinking about my running, and how if I put my mind to it I could really go far with it.

But where do I go? Marathon?

That's a very extreme goal, and needs time. I already have decided to do a half marathon this year, hopefully around the middle of the year.

How much time does one need to train for a marathon without being crazy? I wonder if I could try to do one before I turn 30. That gives me 1 year and 9 months to get ready. Realistic?

5km win, new 'no shopping' motivation

Yesterday I went for a lunch time run, originally I intended to do another miCoach interval, but decided sometime in the morning it was time to try for a sustained run. By that, I meant 3km because I'm pretty busy at work and didn't want to be out of the office for too long.

Pretty quickly into the run I knew I was feeling great. I did my usual 'intervals' for the last 200m of a km, and I also added a slower 'interval' between 0.3 and 0.5 of each km. After the 3km point I was struggling a bit, but knew I could continue. I decided that I wouldn't do any more intervals.

At this point I was trying to do the maths in my head to try to beat my best 5km time. When I run, particularly near the end, my thinking capability, particularly mathematics capability is very low. Somehow I figured out what speed I needed to do to ensure I got well below 33 minutes. And I did, I managed to do it in 32:46 according to the treadmill, a whole 20 seconds off my fastest. That might not sound much, but I've only got 8 lots of 20 seconds to cut off my time to get to my goal pace for 5km.

Hmmn.

Did some more yoga this morning, hopefully will make that a habit.

At lunchtime today, while shopping, I made a decision that I am not to buy any new clothes until I hit 7kg loss. That is 3.6kg away, so I'm about half way there. I'm that certain I am going to lose the weight I am not allowed to shop.

But I can still buy shoes, because my feet won't get any smaller....

Variety bonus

All of the magazines/books/etc I've been reading on weight loss say that you have to mix up the exercise for the best results. If you do the same thing over and over, your body will get used to it and you won't see as much result.

Yesterday I played tennis for an hour, which was great. It wasn't as exerting as I could've made it (sorry Ash), but I still felt pretty sore this morning.

This morning to overcome my soreness I did 10 minutes of Yoga on the Wii Fit, which was great. I am going to try to do that every day.

Even after my decadent 5 course dinner last night I still managed to weigh in less on the Wii Fit, excellent! Imagine what I could've been if I hadn't been such a pig. Oh well, I'll run today to make up for it.

Still over 6kg until Whitsundays. I'll get there.

The most important meal of the day

Yesterday I bought a book called 'Losing the Last 5kg' by Susie Burrell. I was actually looking for the book of the same title by Michelle Bridges, but couldn't find it. I flicked through the book last night and found myself thinking I was already doing pretty much everything that she was saying to do. The only thing I wasn't doing, was having a proper breakfast.

Lately I've been snacking on a Biggest Loser breakfast bar between getting to work and lunch time. Not good. So, the big change I am now going to make is to have a nice protein rich breakfast every morning. This morning I started with an omelette with toast. Tomorrow it will be baked beans on toast. Mmm.

Here's hoping that kicks off some more weight loss.

Today I did a miCoach workout, the first time I have done one of the workouts they have designed. It was blue zone with red zone intervals. Overall it was 35 minutes, and I pushed that out to 38 minutes to get to 5km. Very pleased with my effort, I was sweating all over the treadmill (could also be from how frigging hot it is today!).

My legs are super duper fatigued, not sore, just fatigued.

Possibly playing tennis after work tomorrow. Hopefully.

Oops

It's been awhile.

Sunday
Did another hour session, which was just over 8km. Very pleased.

Monday
Did a fast 2km in 11:57

Haven't done anything since, donated blood on Wednesday.

Planning to attempt a 10km run this weekend, maybe even tonight. Fingers crossed.

Weight still about the same, somewhere between 2.5kg - 3kg all week.

Long walk

I meant to try for a long run today, but only 0.5km in I knew it was not possible. My right knee was sore, my left ankle a bit stiff. So instead I decided to continue on with a walk/intervals for an hour.

Was interesting looking at the HR stats for the effort. If what I hear is true, that my fat burning heart rate is lower then the effort should've been a good fat burning session!

I was a bit lighter on the scales after the workout, and for dinner I decided to have pork and salad. I was tempted for dessert, but looked that both options were over 400 calories and I went with a Biggest Loser 100 calorie snack bar instead. Some 'Commando' bar.

Speaking of, I'm looking forward to the new Biggest Loser starting, no idea when it starts?

Weight annoyance

I did 4 runs last week, quite a bit of effort, yet since mid-week I have been weighing about 1kg more consistently than I had the previous couple of weeks.

WTF?

Really, really annoying.

Best run yet!

I went to the gym last night intending on doing the 21 minute workout I had designed.

Instead I ran for 40 minutes!

The treadmill stats (which is what I'm going to rely on for now) was 6km in 39:25. Micoach stats was 6.16km in 40 minutes.

No idea how miCoach and the treadmill can have different times...

I think because miCoach was forcing me to run quite slow, within my green zone, for the first 21 minutes (apart from my intervals) that is why I was able to run for longer. That's how I used to run, I would run quite slow then gradually speed up. MiCoach says my best km was just over 6 minutes, for a long run, that's pretty good.

Today I am taking a well deserved break, with a lake run planned for sometime over the weekend. This is mostly to work out whether or not miCoach is wrong, or if the treadmill is wrong.

miCoach assessment

I made it through the workout, I really think I am going to like miCoach.

Here are the heart rate stats for my 'run', or a link to it here

The drop in the middle was when my shoelace came undone. Oops.

Anyway, I'm so excited about miCoach I'm going to head off to the gym now for another run!

miCoach obtained

My 3km run yesterday was pretty good, took 3 seconds off my best time, did it in 18:17. To "punish" myself for not getting under 18 minutes I had to do sets of 17 on the weights machines.

Last night I bought miCoach. I've programmed on a plan although I'm not sure if I am going to go ahead with it or customise my own plan, I think I have a pretty good idea on what training I need to do.

Today is the assessment day, which works out well because I wasn't planning on running today. It's just a 12 minute assessment where I gradually increase speed and then recover. Not really sure what affect this has on my plans, but I think it gets a sense of my fitness level and adjusts my 'zones' for that...

I'm mostly interested in the data I'm going to get from using miCoach when running, particularly my heart rate. I have no idea what my heart rate has been doing.. will be interesting to see!

Motivation thoughts

Yesterday I discovered that if I say out loud what my goal for a particular run is I am more likely to achieve it.

Not sure if typing 'out loud' has the same affect...

Today I plan on running 3km as close to 18 minutes as possible, ideally under 18 minutes, but I'm not really sure how realistic that is. My best is 18:20? So should be possible?

I'm looking forward to when I can start at closer to 10 on the treadmill. At the moment it's about 8.5-9. Today I am going to start at 9, and will probably do 200-400m of  'sprint' intervals per km. Usually I do this up to a half km point, so at either 0.3 or 0.4 I'll do my sprint until I reach 0.5, then will do the same again at 0.8 or 0.9 or somewhere in between until I get to 1.0. After each interval my normal pace will increase by 0.1 also. That's my strategy. Yesterday I failed and had to go down to my starting speed of 8.6 at about the 2.6km point, but I did finish at 11.

I'm also looking forward to my 'sprints' being 12 and over. At the moment they are 10-11.5. I have done a couple of them at 12, but never over. I would probably fall over and break my nose on the treadmill if I did that.

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Yesterday I emailed The Athlete's Foot store in Civic again asking them to put aside an Adidas MiCoach. At $250 I've been pondering it for sometime, trying to get a good online price. Turns out the good online prices are not for Australian deliveries, the best I found that I can get delivered was around $190, and I figure I'll just pay the extra $60 to have it NOW.

Pay day tomorrow, so I will go and pick it up at lunch time tomorrow. Exciting!

Leg success

This morning I decided my lunch time run would be 5km, as it has been quite sometime since I've done a long run.

When I started my run I felt so very comfortable, I thought I could run at that pace forever, so I got over excited and sped up a little.

About 2.25km in I started to feel like I couldn't do much more, I told myself I could stop at 3km, but then at about 2.6km, where I was past the half way point, I convinced myself it would be great if I could do what I actually planned to do. I slowed down a tiny bit, regained my comfort and got back into it. I managed to get the speed up a little bit by the time I got to 4km, then did a good 10-11 pace sprint at the end.

My legs feel fantastic after that effort, normally my legs feel horrible and achey. This is a great sign that my new technique is working well.

I emailed The Athlete's Foot again today to see if they had any Adidas MiCoach in stock, I went to the Woden store yesterday but they don't stock them. I think having the motivation and data from it is going to help me get better faster.

The 10km run I am training for now is on the 6th March, that's 9 weeks away. I am hoping I can run it under 65 minutes. Under 60 is probably a bit too unrealistic at this point.

Tomorrow I'm thinking I'm going for a 3km run. If I feel sore I might skip it or just do 2km. Because 2km is almost as pointless as doing nothing these days anyway ;)

New strategy

Yesterday I bought the Biggest Loser Wii game (for $15!). I decided that it would be targeted at very unfit people, and put my setting to 'Expert'. I then did a 30 minute workout which was SO intense I am in agony today.

It's good though, I need to vary my workouts to get better results.

Today I looked at the game and it tells me no exercise today. Win! Tomorrow I have to do 32 minutes of Yoga. That's fine by me! Then on Tuesday it's giving me 48 minutes of lower body exercises. Crikey.

Since it's Yoga tomorrow, I think I'll also go for a run, then recover with Yoga. Gym is closed today, and supposed to be 37 today so no running today. Might do some Wii Fit or just Wii Sports.